News 1: 2013 figures for international students seeking jobs at Japanese companies etc. The Immigration Bureau of the Ministry of Justice has announced that, in 2013, it processed 12,793 applications for a change of visa status from international students intending to seek employment at Japanese companies, and approved 11,647 of these. With the number of applicants up by 1,095 from the previous year’s 11,698 (a 9.4% increase) and the number of successful applications up by 678 from the previous year’s 10,969 (a 6.2% increase), 2013 was a record year for a change of visa status applications. The top five countries/regions for successful applications were (1) China (7,637), (2) Korea (1,227), (3) Vietnam (424), (4) Taiwan (360), and (5) Nepal (293). Together, Asian countries accounted for 95% of successful applications. The successful applications broke down by visa status into 7,962 for “Specialist in Humanities/International Services” visas and 2,428 for “Engineer” visas. Together, these two statuses accounted for 89.2% of applications.